Cricket: Hooper helps improve the mood

Kent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .236-4

Middlesex

LESS than two months into the season, and it already looks as if Kent's stationery printers will be given the same old answer when making the customary phone call in Septem=ber: 'Any additions to the honours list?' 'No, same as last year.'

That conversation has been taking place every autumn since 1978 and even the county's normally positive Australian coach, Daryl Foster,

appears to have caught the mood. Before yesterday's play he admitted that Kent, one of the pre-season favourites, had given up on the championship already to concentrate on the Sunday League (in which they are fourth).

Although inconsistent performances and inconvenient rain have left Kent without a win from five games, it seems a bit early to throw in the towel.

Certainly that was the opinion of fellow surprise strugglers, Middlesex, who are also winless from four starts. 'If we put a few wins together we will be back up there,' Angus Fraser said. 'Our problem is that we have lost at least a day to the weather in each game.'

They were a bit luckier yesterday, only losing 18 overs, but four separate stoppages for rain and bad light left the day as shapeless as a Demis Roussos costume.

Even Carl Hooper, who made 89 in 155 balls, was unable to capture his usual fluency, chancing his arm in the air and being beaten several times off the pitch by the

impressive youngster, Richard Johnson. Having twice dismissed Brian Lara this

season, Johnson must now possess self-confidence of Bothamesque proportions.

It was Fraser, however, who dismissed Hooper off a misjudged pull shortly before the close, the sides having

returned for the final time in front of a near-empty ground at 10 past six.

Hooper's was the dominant performance in an understandably disjointed Kent innings. Having lost Mark Benson without scoring, they built slowly with the usually ebullient Trevor Ward taking nearly three hours to reach his fifty. But, for the fifth time in seven innings, he failed to convert 50 into 100, falling to a good low return catch by Neil Williams.